St. Landry democrat., 1887-02-19
DR.. TALMAGE.
q Pillars of Smoke" the Subject OF
His Last Sermon.
An Indication OF the Suffering and Perse-
eutlon the Church OF God Has Endured
"A symbol of Its Beauty ana
Ultimate Triumph.

RRn0ELYN, N. u, ECU o-Di' A"iAA1"oS
took for his text this morning portion OF |
the sixth verse OF the third cnap'er %
Solornon's Song: "Who is this that
cometh out of the wilderness IKE pillars
of snokes" He spoke as follows:
The architecture of the smoke Is won
drous, whether God with His finger curls
1t into cloud, or rounds it into dome, or
points it into spre, or spreads IL IN d
wing. or, as in the text, HOSTS 1t INTO a
pillar. Watch it winding up from the
country farmhouse in the early morning,
showing that tho pastoral Industries nave
bcsrun, or see it ascending from the CHM
news Of the city, telling Of the homes fed'
the factories turning out valuable fabrlcs,
the printing presses preparing book anu
newspaper, and all the ten thousand Wheels
in motion On a clear day this Vapor
s;}cken Of mounts with such buoyancy, anu
s,srcads such delicate vail across the
Sky. and trace; such graceful lines OF
circle and scmi-circle and waves, ana
tasses and sinks, and scars, and scatters,
with such atIiueuce of shape and color and
sucgestivencss that if you have never
noticed it you are like man who has all
hs life lived in Paris and yet never seen
the Luxembourg, and all his life IN home
and never seen the Vatican, and all MS
life at Loclport and never seen Niagara.
F0rty-four times the Bible speaks OF the
smoke, and it is about time some body
breaches sermon recognizing this strange,
weird, beautiful, elastic, charming. terrlnc
and fascinating yapor. Across the blple
sky floats the smoke Of Sinai, the smoke OF
Seldom, the smoke of All, the smoke of the
Dit the smoke of the volcanic hills when
God touches them, and in my text the glo-
nF snH
6crnass like pillars of smoke.
In the first place these pillars of smoke
in my text indicate the suffering the
church of God has endured. What do
mean by the churchl | mean not build
i0g not q sect, but those who in all ages
and all lands, and of all beliefs, love God
and are trying to do right. For many
centuries the heavens have been black
with the smoke of martyrdom If set side
b. side you could girdle the earth with the
fires of persecution, Rowland Taylor
burned at Hadieigh; Latimer burned at
Oxford; John Rogers burned at Smithtield;
John Hooper burned at Gloucester; John
Huss burned at Constance; Lawrence
Saunders burned at Coventry; Joan of Arc
burned at Rouen.
Protestant have sometimes pointed to
Catholics as prosecutors, but both Protest
ant and Catholic have practiced Infamous
crueltGes. The Catholics, during the reign
of Hunneric, were by Professionals put to
the worst tortures, stripped of their cloth
ing, hoisted in the air by pulleys with
weights suspended from their feet; then
let down, and ears and eyes, nose and tongue
were amputated, and red-hot plates of iron
were put against the tenderest parts OF
theit bodies.
George Bancroft, the historian, says Of
tie State of Maryland: 'In the land
Which Catholics had opened to Professionals
lass might not be said publicly; no Catho-
&c priest or bishop might utter his faith in
G voice of persuasion; no Catholic might
teach the young. If the wayward child OF
u Paplst would but become an apostate the
law wrested for him from his parents
share of their prope .ty. Such were the
methods adopted to prevent the growth OF
Popery."
Speaking of Ireland, the same historian
says: t'Slich priests as were permitted to
reside in Ireland were required to be reg
istered and were kept like prisoners at
large within prescribed limits. All Papists
exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction, all
monks, friars and regular priests not then
actually in parishes and to be registered.
were banished from Ireland under pain OF
transportation, and, on return, Of being
hanged, drawn and quartered.
Catholicism as we'll as Professionalism had
its martyrs. 1t does seem as If when any
one sect got complete dominancy in any
land the devil of persecution and cruelty
took possession of that sect. Then see the
Catholics after the Huguenots. See the
Gentiles after the Jews in Touraine. where
great pit was dug and fire lighted at the
bottom of the pit, and one hundred and
sixty Jewish victims were consumed. See
the Presbyterian parliament Of England,
more tyrannicai in their treatment of OPP
ponents than had been the criminal
courts; persecution against the Bap-
Of tho Established Church against
the Methodist Church; persecution
against the Quakers; persecution against
the Presbyterians. Under Emperor Dio-
cletian IA, 900 Christians were massacred,
and 100 03 more Of them died from Danish
ment aud exposure. Witness the sufferings
of the Waldenses, of the Albigenses, OF
the HISTORIANS; witness st Bartholomew 8
massacre; witness the Duke of Alva
driving out of life 1900 Christians; wit
ness Herod, and Nero, and Decius, and
Hildebrand, and Torquemada, and Earl OF
Montfort, and Lord Claverhouse, who
when told that he must give account
for his cruelties, said: II have no need to
account to man, and as for God, will take
Him in my own hands"
A red line runs through the church his.
tory of nineteen hundred years. Line OF
blood. Not by the hundreds OF thousands,
but by the millions must we count those
slain for Chist's sake. No wonder John
Milton put the groans of the martyrs to an
immortal tune. writing:
"Avenge, Q Lord, Thy slaughtered saints
whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold
The smoke OF martyrs homes and mar
syrs' bodies, if rolling up all at once
would have eclipsed the MONDAY sun and
turned the brightest day the world ever
saw into midnight. ssWho 10 this
that cometh UP out of the wilderness like
pillars of smokes"
Has persecution ceaseda Ask that man
who is trying to be q Christian, in store
pon IN snh1